cover reveal

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Are you a busy wife/mom/student/working woman? What you see above is a valuable tool to help you get your time and your tasks under control. But this is not your mother’s planner. Besides writing down your daily appointments, this planner helps you keep track of your budget, plan meals, organize your schedule, and—most importantly—helps you CRUSH your goals. That last phrase is right from the mouth of Ruth Soukup.

I have come to admire Ruth Soukup for her honesty, creativity, and business savvy, so I decided to become an affiliate for her products. Her new, improved Living Well Planner® edition goes on pre-order today. If you decide to buy it here, please be aware I’ll get a commission. I’ll be very grateful if you do.

As you can see, the new edition features a pretty, hand-drawn floral cover design. Ruth and her team have completely refreshed the interior too. It will only be available while supplies last.

The planner will begin shipping on August 31st, and anyone who orders a one between July 11th and August 31st can take advantage of Early Bird pricing. ($39 versus the new regular price of $49.) This Early Bird pricing applies to the signature striped Living Well Planner® design above as well, which also features a refreshed interior.

In addition to the price discount, anyone who preorders will also receive some bonuses: Ruth’s 2 very favorite sticky note pads FREE with their planner purchase—the Weekly Wizard™ (an $8.50 value) and the Daily Do-It™ (a $9.50 value). Both are designed to work with the planner to help you better organize your week and your days, respectively, by helping you prioritize your to-do lists to make sure that the most important things get done first. Best of all, you can stick them right into the weekly planning pages of your planner to keep yourself on track all week long.

The calendars inside the planner are undated, so you can begin using it for the upcoming fall school term if you wish. Or you can wait until January and FINALLY accomplish those New Year’s resolution once and for all. And wouldn’t it make a wonderful Christmas gift for family or friends?

Protesters, clashing viewpoints, economic crisis.

No, not the presidential campaign. It all happens in my romance novella. And yes, it’s a comedy.

If you need a break from the Republican National Convention, here’s a lighter look at political goings on in a sort-of fictional small town.

When the mayor of Calusa flees town in the middle of the night, Geneva Price finds herself in charge and trying to hold it all together. Seth Connor, a swoon-worthy hotel developer (with good hair), might be the answer to her prayers, in more ways than one. But first she has to arrange a truce between the ecologists and the economists. Just a typical day in Florida.

Victoria Carson never expected love. An American heiress and graduate of Lady Grantham’s finishing school, she’s been groomed since birth to marry an English title–the grander the better. So when the man chosen for her, the forbidding Earl of Dunnley, seems to hate her on sight, she understands that it can’t matter. Love can have no place in this arrangement.

Andrew Hargrave has little use for his title, and even less for his cold, disinterested parents. Determined to make his own way, he’s devoted to his life in Italy, working as an archaeologist. Until the collapse of his family’s fortune drags him back to England, to a marriage he never wanted and a woman he doesn’t care to know.

Wild attraction is an unwanted complication for them both, though it forms the most fragile of bonds. Their marriage of convenience isn’t so intolerable after all–but it may not be enough when the deception that bound them is finally revealed.

Excerpt:

“Goodnight, Miss Carson.”

“Goodnight, Your Lordship.”

He held onto her hand for a beat too long, that delicious roughness of his palm heating hers. Her stomach erupted in butterflies. Utter romantic nonsense. It was a handshake. She glanced up at his face and their eyes met. The butterflies vanished and her stomach dropped clean to her feet. Her feet were rooted in place, but her body swayed slightly, as if being tugged toward him by an invisible thread. A muscle in his cheek twitched. Then, to her shock, he leaned in and kissed her cheek.

Her skin warmed beneath his lips and a delicious tingle shot down the back of her neck. It was only a moment, a brush of his lips against her cheek, but it heated her all the way down to the soles of her feet. Well, there was her answer about his touch. That tiny kiss was ricocheting through her body, laying waste to her good sense.

He drew back two scant inches, his eyes meeting hers in the dull gold glow of the gaslight wall sconces behind her. She could feel his breath on her mouth. There was only his beautiful, strong face and those shockingly blue eyes and his lips, which had made her feel so much at the slightest touch. She swayed toward him again. His eyelids lowered, his gaze dropping to her mouth.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Amanda has loved romance since she read that very first Kathleen E. Woodiwiss novel at fifteen. After a long detour into a career as a costume designer in theatre, she’s found her way back to romance, this time as a writer.

A native Floridian, Amanda transplanted to New York City many years ago and now considers Brooklyn home, along with her husband, daughter, two cats, and nowhere near enough space.

“I have a confession. In a former life, I was a poor but proud Victorian governess. That’s the only obvious explanation for my obsession with governess stories.

I’ve read and re-read Jane Eyre and always fiercely wanted to be like Jane — proud, independent, clever and the winner of a noble (and rich) man’s heart.

I’ve seen “The Sound of Music” innumerable times and each time I’m swept up in the magnificent scenery, the thrilling music and the story of the poor but feisty governess who captures the noble (and rich) man’s heart.

For me, there’s something eternally enticing about the tale of a woman who endures personal hardship, tames unruly children, and at the same time finds, to her surprise, that she is irresistible to the master of the house. These women are seldom beautiful, not necessarily well-born, and actively resist love’s allure. Yet love in the shape of a tall, dark and autocratic gentleman finds them, captures them, and by the end of the story they are wed to that nobleman and enjoying all the advantages of wealth, privilege and the best sex in the world.

The Governess Brides series begins when Distinguished Academy of Governesses opens its doors to train young women for respectable occupations:

Unfortunately, in RULES OF SURRENDER, Miss Charlotte Dalrumple discovers her first position is to teach Lord Wynter Ruskin, sadly uncivilized by his travels abroad, to take his proper place in society. Hint: it doesn’t go well.

In RULES OF ENGAGEMENT, because of his unrepentantly disreputable ways, the Earl of Kerrich is in trouble with the queen. His solution: hire a governess and obtain an orphan to raise. That will make him appear respectable. Trouble: the kid is charming, he’s falling in love with the unattractive governess … but other than that, what could go wrong? … Oh, so much.

In RULES OF ATTRACTION, Miss Hannah Setterington travels far into the lonely English countryside to take a new position and hears rumors that the master killed his beautiful young wife. Could any situation be worse? Yes, it could, for she knows the rumors are not true … because she is his runaway wife.

With eleven full-length books and one novella, the Governess Brides is my longest-running and most-popular historical series (six of the titles are on the Goodreads List of Best Governess Romances.) So when Avon Books announced they would repackage the books to introduce them to a new audience, and showed me the concepts, those compelling heroes with their direct gazes drew me at once into the stories. I promptly sat down with the Rules books to reacquaint myself with the characters and stories and — guess what? I ended up reading them from beginning to end and living, laughing and falling in love along with my governess heroines. I’ve always said I write the books I want to read. I hope you read and enjoy the Governess Brides, too!”

New York Times bestselling author Christina Dodd builds worlds filled with suspense, romance and adventure and creates the most distinctive characters in fiction today. Her fifty+ novels — suspense, paranormals, and historicals — have been translated into twenty-five languages, won Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Golden Heart and RITA Awards and been called the year’s best by Booklist. Dodd herself has been a clue in the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle — her mother was totally impressed. With more than twenty-five million of her books in print and eBook, her legions of fans always know that when they pick up a Christina Dodd book, they’ve found, “an absolute thrill ride of a book!”

Enter Christina’s worlds at ChristinaDodd.com and join her free mailing list for book news and sales.

In Legion, the climactic finale to the Dark Rituals series, Colina must face her demons—both literally and figuratively—once and for all.

“Violence gleamed out of my eyes, and my hands reached toward the reflection in the mirror. Who was this girl? … I was changing. … I was becoming whatever I had to in order to survive.”

We first met seventeen-year-old Colina Campbell in Awakening, when she unleashed the darkness inside her to become a master of the Death Arts. Now, after being hunted for months, Colina must finally face the consequences of her decision to become a death dealer.

Get the entire series on iBooks starting October 7th

Catrina Burgess’ Dark Rituals series originally appeared on Wattpad with over three million reads. Revenant is the final book of four. The first in the series, Awakening, was named Wattpad’s Best Suspense Story of 2014.

Jennifer L. Armentrout’s FALL WITH ME cover is here. This New Adult Contemporary Romance in Armentrout’s With You Saga is the 4th book in the series, and is being published by Avon Romance, an imprint of HarperCollins.

Here’s the blurb:

Eleven months ago, bartender and weird-shirt-wearing extraordinaire Roxy and Officer Reece Anders had a one night stand. Well, kind of. She’s been in love with him since she was fifteen, and he wishes that night they shared never happened. She’s sworn him off forever, but the past and future collide, forcing her to rely on the one man who broke her heart not once, but twice.

Her best friend since birth has been in a long-term care facility since he became a victim of a hate crime years ago, and the person who put him in there is out of prison and wanting to make amends with him and Roxy. She’s not sure she has room for forgiveness in her and when she begins to receive frightening messages and is on the receiving end of escalating violence, she thinks she knows who is to blame. The man who already destroyed one life already.

But Reece isn’t convinced. The threats are too personal, and even if Roxy doesn’t believe him, he’s not willing to let anyone hurt her. Including himself. He’s already messed up more than once when it comes to Roxy and he’s not going to let history repeat itself.

# 1 NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY Bestselling author Jennifer lives in Martinsburg, West Virginia. All the rumors you’ve heard about her state aren’t true. When she’s not hard at work writing. she spends her time reading, working out, watching really bad zombie movies, pretending to write, and hanging out with her husband and her Jack Russell Loki.

Her dreams of becoming an author started in algebra class, where she spent most of her time writing short stories….which explains her dismal grades in math. Jennifer writes young adult paranormal, science fiction, fantasy, and contemporary romance. She is published with Spencer Hill Press, Entangled Teen and Brazen, Disney/Hyperion and Harlequin Teen. Her book Obsidian has been optioned for a major motion picture and her Covenant Series has been optioned for TV.

She also writes adult and New Adult romance under the name J. Lynn. She is published by Entangled Brazen and HarperCollins.

My life is just a teensy bit out of control right now. I completely missed posting a promised review of Elephantine’s newest release, Perception. This is a New Adult anthology featuring works by Linda Davis, Scott Davis, Nealy Gihan, and Mary Laufer. Mea culpa, but I promise I’ll review this book at a later date.